Batting average .277 Name Katsuya Nomura Inducted 1989 RBIs 1988 Weight 85 kg | HRs 657 Height 1.75 m Hits 2901 Role Baseball Player Children Don Nomura | |
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The legend of Nankai Hawks batter, Katsuya Nomura, his photo and display the story of 10th victory
Katsuya Nomura (野村 克也, Nomura Katsuya, born June 29, 1935 in Amino, Takeno District (Present: Kyotango), Kyoto prefecture, Japan) was one of Nippon Professional Baseball's (NPB) greatest catchers. He also served as manager of the Yakult Swallows for eight seasons, led the Hanshin Tigers for three years, and skippered the Rakuten Golden Eagles for four seasons. With 657 home runs and 1988 RBI, Nomura ranks number two on the career NPB lists in both categories, behind Sadaharu Oh. Nomura was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Contents
- The legend of Nankai Hawks batter Katsuya Nomura his photo and display the story of 10th victory
- Early life
- Playing career
- Managing career
- Personal life
- References
Early life
He lost his father at the age of three years, and his mother and brother raised him in poverty. He never made it to the national baseball tournaments in high school, but he was given a chance to play for the Nankai Hawks as a trainee without salary.
Playing career
During a career that spanned four decades from 1954 to 1980, Nomura hit 657 home runs and led the Pacific League in homers eight straight seasons. (However, it should be taken into consideration that his home park, Osaka Stadium, measured only 276 feet down the lines until 1972, and 300 feet from 1972 onward, and 380 feet to straightaway center—tiny dimensions by Major League Baseball standards.) He finished his career with 2901 hits.
In 1965, Nomura won the league's first Triple Crown. He was a player-manager between 1970 and 1977. He played for 26 years, the longest NPB playing career until Kimiyasu Kudoh pitched in his 27th season in 2008.
Managing career
Besides managing the Hawks from 1970 to 1977, Nomura steered the Yakult Swallows to four league titles in the 1990s, and won the Japan Series in 1993, 1995 and 1997. One of his most important contributions to player development was working with Atsuya Furuta to be a great catcher. Furuta was the Central League MVP in 1993 and became player-manager of the Swallows in 2006–07, joining Nomura as the only players in NPB history to win an MVP award and also serve as a player-manager.
After stepping down as the Yakult skipper, Nomura managed the Hanshin Tigers from 1999 to 2001, but resigned after Hanshin finished at the bottom of the Central League for three straight seasons. Additionally, Nomura's wife, Sachiyo, was in legal trouble in 2001 due to charges of tax evasion, which also contributed to his decision to relinquish his position.
Nomura was hired to manage an industrial league team, Shidax Baseball Club, in 2003. He led the team through the 2005 season. Nomura returned to the NPB as a manager for the 2006 season with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. In so doing, he became the oldest manager in the history of NPB.
On April 29, 2009, he reached the 1,500 win mark in his managerial career, but he also holds the all-time record for number of losses.
He retired at the end of the 2009 season and was replaced by American and former Hiroshima manager, Marty Brown.
Personal life
Prior to taking on the job of managing the Hanshin Tigers, Nomura also appeared on the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef as a guest judge in a handful of episodes, including one of Masaharu Morimoto's first episodes in the King Crab battle.
In 2013, he played a funny character named "Boyaite-Bakkari-Man" in commercial message of Japanese soccer lottery.